EPISODE S.5, E.15

Toby (00:09):
Cheyenne, what’s up?

Cheyenne (00:11):
Not a whole lot, Toby. How you doing?

Toby (00:13):
I am roasting down here in [inaudible 00:00:17].

Cheyenne (00:17):
We were in a meeting a little bit ago and I think you have a wicked sunglasses tan line.

Toby (00:22):
Me?

Cheyenne (00:23):
Yes.

Toby (00:24):
I was at the lake last weekend over the fourth, and yeah, I wore a lot of sunglasses.

Cheyenne (00:29):
Yep, yep. That’ll do it

Toby (00:30):
Could just be my aging skin, I don’t know.

Cheyenne (00:32):
I don’t think so. I think you’ve got a pretty good tan line going.

Toby (00:36):
Oh, you know what? My bald head is so close to the sun though. It gets so crusty, sunburnt. Even if I put sunscreen on.

Cheyenne (00:44):
You got to SPF, yeah.

Toby (00:46):
I miss hair so much.

Cheyenne (00:49):
It does help protect against the sun.

Toby (00:51):
That it does. That it does. I’m excited about this episode, it looks like it’s the two of us.

Cheyenne (00:59):
It is the two of us. Yes, yeah.

Toby (01:01):
Heather is out actually working.

Cheyenne (01:03):
I know.

Toby (01:03):
Doing productive stuff.

Cheyenne (01:05):
Yeah, visiting customers, doing all that good stuff. We’re just here talking about fruit.

Toby (01:10):
That’s it. Yes, today is all about fruit. But first, we got-

Cheyenne (01:16):
[inaudible 00:01:16] fruit puns.

Toby (01:18):
Yeah, we do. I have a few jokes, but I won’t launch them your way. Yeah, I think we had Chris on and I completely shut down the entire interview. People were like, “What? What’s going on with that guy?”

Cheyenne (01:30):
Not the fruit jokes. Well, before we launch into the full episode here, let’s talk a little bit about the Veterans Blend. We’ve got the pre-orders open for the seventh annual Veterans Hot Blend from Yakima Chiefs. Those pre-orders are open now through August 26th. The Veterans Blend is a good one this year we’ve got Citra, Crystal, Ekuanot, El Dorado, and Simcoe. Lots of citrus.

Toby (01:55):
Yummy.

Cheyenne (01:55):
Yeah, that’s a good one. Brewing values are 12.5% alpha and we got, like I said, a lot of citrus and a lot of stone fruit, so that’s going to be a really good blend. I’m looking forward to that.

Toby (02:04):
Absolutely. And when you purchase this year’s Veterans Blend, CMG donates three bucks per pound to Stop Soldier Suicide. It’s the only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to reducing the suicide rate among our nation’s veterans. So join us in supporting Stop Soldier Suicide to further their mission of assisting US veterans in creating a future where veterans and service members are at no greater risk for suicide than any other American. So if you’re interested in learning more, please reach out to your CMG sales rep. This time of year with the Veterans Blend is really awesome and it’s a great cause and I enjoyed going out and hearing what people are using and what they’re brewing with the Veteran Hot Blend.

Cheyenne (02:47):
Yeah, I’m excited to see what people brew up. This one’s going to be a great year for it. And we’ve done podcast episodes in the past. I wish I had them all pulled up so I could list them off, but if you’re interested in learning more, you can go back through our back catalog in the previous seasons and listen to some really cool episodes about the veterans.

Toby (03:03):
Absolutely. And today, we are peeling back the layers here, getting to the core of things and getting fresh and fruity, talking about fruit editions and beer and other craft beverages. Was that too much? Did anyone get that?

Cheyenne (03:18):
We’re just getting started because I mean, first off, great minds think alike.

Toby (03:25):
Oh, gosh.

Cheyenne (03:25):
And we’re going to be joined by Chris Hodge from Oregon Fruit. Chris is a veteran of the BrewDeck Podcast, as you’ll hear in our recording, but he joined us on season two episode one; The Juice is Worth the Squeeze.

Toby (03:40):
Cheyenne, it actually takes two to mango. Our industry friend and expert in fruit, Tyson Jones is also going to pop in with us, and our product manager, Abi Conner, is going to join as well. And we’re going to be talking about the new fruit concentrates we’re bringing into the CMG portfolio at the end of the month.

Cheyenne (03:59):
Oh, is it? It’s always a treat when Abi gets to join us.

Toby (04:01):
She’s awesome.

Cheyenne (04:02):
She’s a busy gal, but when she joins us, it’s a fun one.

Toby (04:04):
Yep, absolutely. Well, let’s get it started. Everybody take a listen, and I got a question for you before we go here.

Cheyenne (04:11):
Yeah.

Toby (04:11):
Maybe it’s me because I’m getting older and I’m not technology savvy, but for those that are listening out there and it’s their first time, do you just send a passenger or homing pigeon or carrier pigeon up in the air and subscribe? What do you do? They should subscribe right now, right? Do you just press a button?

Cheyenne (04:30):
Yes, they should go subscribe. It’s a button, yeah, you don’t need a carrier pigeon these days.

Toby (04:35):
Damn, okay. Well.

Cheyenne (04:37):
Yeah.

Toby (04:38):
I think everybody should do it right now because this is going to be a fun one and yeah, put it on your catalog or whatever and listen to us going forward. Let’s get rolling.

(04:46)
Happy to have a veteran of what he calls the HodgeCast, Crush Hodge, as we see in his little name tag here on the Zoom recording. Actually, it’s Chris Hodge. Chris, how you doing, buddy?

Chris (05:02):
Excellent, Toby, excellent to be back. So nice to have this chance to speak with you again.

Toby (05:07):
Yeah, we have a warm chair for you every time you join the podcast.

Chris (05:11):
Toasty, toasty.

Toby (05:12):
Yeah. And when it comes to fruit, there’s no better person to have on than Chris. Chris is, well, I mean I can let you do the intro, but I know Chris, I’ve known him a long time, and he’s an industry veteran for sure. Been around the block in brewing and obviously fruit and knows his way around all things fruit and we’re happy to have him on. Chris, Director of Sales, right? Still your title?

Chris (05:39):
That’s correct, yep.

Toby (05:40):
You’re doing a lot of directing, I know that.

Chris (05:43):
Well, film was my first passion, so yes, you’re correct.

Toby (05:47):
Was it really?

Chris (05:49):
No. I mean, I was a thespian if that counts.

Toby (05:51):
I don’t know about that.

Chris (05:52):
Don’t twist that one around, Toby, please do not twist that one around.

Toby (05:55):
I learned something new about you every time we talk. This is great. This is great. Well, enough of me talking. Cheyenne and I will hand it over to you. So tell us a little bit about yourself and Oregon Fruit company.

Chris (06:09):
Well, first of all, Oregon Fruit’s been around, thanks for that intro by the way. And Oregon’s Fruit’s been around almost 90 years now. I think last time we talked we were 87 years. We’re still a family-owned and operated single source facility here in Salem, Oregon. So our 3,000 plus customers who purchase fruit from us are getting it right from one of the most fertile growing regions in the world, at least in the US for sure. We’re very proud of our facility, we got a full rebuild upgrade in 2018, and we’re still doing upgrades as we speak. So that’s where a bunch of the fruit is sourced. It, meaning, the Willamette Valley up in Washington as well. But we’ve also had to spin to worldwide sourcing just because of all the demand in the food and beverage industry. So yeah, fruit processor in the Willamette Valley that does business pretty much worldwide.

Toby (07:06):
Yeah, that’s great. I might be asking just a really generic question here, but I don’t know, I’m just curious, what percentage of your products go into the beverage industry? I’m catching you off guard here. If you have any idea.

Chris (07:20):
About just slightly over 50% of our processed fruit products go into the beverage industry. And that has kind of vacillated. When I joined about eight years ago, it was probably only 30%, but we’ve seen substantial, almost exponential, growth in large part due to craft beer. But as we all know now, craft beverage and beverage in general, it’s just ripe with all kinds of innovative ideas that primarily include fruit.

Toby (07:52):
No pun intended on the ripe?

Chris (07:54):
Nope, it’s real.

Toby (07:56):
There you go. Well, I’d say a lot of that growth is probably, well, I’m going to attribute that to you, right, because you’re always out hitting the road and out visiting with customers and giving feedback and tips. So congratulations on that.

Chris (08:10):
Well, thanks. But it takes a village, and in this case, a large production facility with a huge amount of team effort to process the highest quality fruit. It’s one thing to have a quality fruit as incoming ingredient, it’s another thing to be able to consistently process it to the highest quality standards year-after-year, lot-after-lot. And that’s where our team really comes in. So Toby and you and the CMG team know, without a doubt, we have the reputation as having the highest quality fruit purees in the industry.

Toby (08:43):
I would 100% agree because when we’re out in the market and our team is out there, Oregon Fruit is by far top-notch.

Cheyenne (08:53):
Oh, definitely, yeah.

Chris (08:53):
Thank you.

Toby (08:53):
Tell me about, I heard here, that y’all are doing some rebranding, is that right?

Chris (08:57):
Yeah, we did. I think the last rebrand that Oregon Fruit went through was back when the Maletis family bought the Oregon Fruit Company from the Gehlar family back in 2011. And about two or three years after that, they had done a rebrand and it was a cleanup of the old branding essentially. So I will call it just a freshen-up of the old brand. This is truly a complete rebrand. And what we wanted to try to do is keep a brand image that is now more aligned with our future mission, vision, and values, which is great for any company. It also still kept the vibrancy of what we represent, which is real fruit. But yet it maintained the heritage and the old school feel of how the old logos from the 1930s and 40s look. So anybody who’s seen the new brand can sense it. There is a lot of linkage to some of the old styles and we’re very proud of this new rebrand.

Cheyenne (09:57):
I’ve seen the new stuff, it’s great.

Toby (09:58):
Yeah, and I think I remember y’all talking to us, or at least me seeing some snippets of it, and I was like, “Man, that would look great on some socks.” Right? Should you all do some socks?

Chris (10:12):
I’ve got a pair of boxer briefs for you, Toby. It’s special.

Toby (10:15):
Oh, gosh. When that package arrives… Okay, send them my way.

Cheyenne (10:25):
Toby’s getting some fun packages in the mail coming up here soon.

Chris (10:28):
Yes.

Cheyenne (10:28):
All right, well I’m going to steer us back on track here.

Chris (10:33):
Thank you.

Cheyenne (10:35):
You had mentioned the really high quality fruit that your team is getting in processing, and I’m sure similar to growing barley, Oregon Fruit has to navigate the variables out of your control, the weather, growing conditions, all of that stuff. How can you plan and pivot for seasonal availability fruits?

Chris (10:50):
Well, it’s a really good question for all the right reasons. Farming itself has had big challenges over the last several decades, and a lot of the farmers that we used to be able to pull from have either literally gone out of business or had to change crops completely. So we have had to lean into worldwide sourcing. Worldwide sourcing has opened up opportunities to maintain still high quality sourcing of caneberries and citrus. And one of the things that we never used to bring in was tropical fruits. So really, it’s just expanding the breadth and depth of our sourcing options, whether it’s growers, brokers, a combination of growers and brokers, and then still meeting with small farmer consortiums. South America has become very important for us, Costa Rica for pineapple, Mexico for a myriad of other things including mango. So I think the most important piece here to remember is, regardless of where it’s sourced, quality of the incoming fruit still needs to meet the highest level of standards for bricks and Pantone and pH and all the things that make our finished product so amazing. Did that answer your question?

Cheyenne (12:03):
Yeah, definitely. That’s awesome. And it’s super cool to hear about the global reach that you have with the fruits that you’re taking in. And I’m sure, like you said, it expands your options in terms of fruit flavors.

Chris (12:15):
Yeah, what it doesn’t do, it doesn’t shift any of the financial responsibility that comes with being a worldwide sourcing outfit, meaning that we still have to sign annual contracts. In fact, is the only way we’re insured that we can have a mango that’s going to taste the same when you buy it in January as when you place your container order or drum order in December. And literally that’s what we pride ourselves on, being able to have a consistent product from lot-to-lot from crop-to-crop from year-to-year so that when brewers end up building these recipes and formulations for a fruit-infused product, they know it’s going to have consistency throughout three or four or five, sometimes I’ve had customers who started buying X fruit from us back in 2016 who are still using X fruit to make that very strong selling brand that they built this product around.

Cheyenne (13:11):
That’s awesome.

Toby (13:11):
Yeah, that’s a really good point, Chris. And yeah, it’s very similar to what we’re doing on the barley and the malt side, right? The consumer expects the same product every time they get it on tap or crack open the can. And a lot of that is work behind the scenes with people like yourselves, making sure that every piece of fruit that comes in your door to process is what you expect and what the brewer or the consumers expects as well. So that’s great.

Chris (13:42):
Well, I think that’s what gives both of our companies such a leg up on the competition is we have brewing in our veins. I mean, we think about the beer industry day-in and day-out. I mean, that’s what, it’s funny when I think about my history in the beer industry, it’s like I still consider myself a beer guy at heart, and much like you and your entire team, beer people. So when we think of incoming fruit, we think of it much like a brewer would think of their hops and their grain or their yeast, all those very important ingredients. So there’s a strong thread there.

Toby (14:15):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell us about your purees, a little bit about them here. I got a couple bullets behind it, but yeah, just a little overview on your purees there.

Chris (14:25):
Well, purees in general, one of the things I keep going back to is, it’s a consistency in quality, but it’s more importantly a consistency of viscosity. Our purees are, there’s two heat-kill steps which allow it to be quickly pasteurized. It goes through a big [inaudible 00:14:47], which is essentially this giant screen system that allows it to become the perfect consistency every time. And then of course it’s aseptically packaged, which allows 12 to 18 months shelf-life. So all that’s super important. It’s a little bit geeky and sciencey, but I’m a simple man so I think of it in terms of I can buy the highest quality product that’s going to last 12 to 18 months that I can ship at ambient temperatures and store at ambient temperatures. So that’s our purees, which is not different than a lot of folks. It’s just very important that ease of use is a top priority for brewers these days.

Cheyenne (15:20):
Definitely is. Speaking as a former brewer, I can say that being able to have something that is easy to use is a top priority for a lot of brewers. Can you tell us how might a brewer use the purees if they’re making a beer? Is there a certain way that they should add the puree to their wort? Is it pre-fermentation, post-fermentation, anything? Something very specific?

Chris (15:44):
That’s probably the number one question we get that we have been getting and continue to get every single week. So as you guys know, I’m a big relationships guy, so I love phone calls, I live on my phone, I live by my emails, I live by relationships. Everybody who, even some of my oldest customers who are expert brewers, I mean brew masters, we still share ideas. So about your question about dosing, there’s no perfect method. I will tell you that from what I’ve learned primarily from all of our great brewing customers, is that a pre-dosing or the majority of the dosing happening prior to crash.

(16:24)
And then after that, if you really want to have fun and take some risks, you can also use some of your fruit bill after crash and before packaging. So it’s fruit-specific too, much like your grains and your hops, every single fruit functions differently. It also has a different impact depending upon the yeast, type yeast is used. I typically ask three or four questions, “What’s your base beer? What’s your expected outcome in fruit intensity?” And then, “What are you trying to accomplish with this product?” And then finally, “Are you going to put it in draft? Draft or package? Or is this going to be a big brand-driver for you?” By getting all that information ahead of time, we can offer some recommendations.

Cheyenne (17:15):
Interesting.

Toby (17:16):
Why were the apple and orange all alone? Anyone? Because the banana split.

Cheyenne (17:23):
Oh my god.

Chris (17:25):
I think I missed it. Something must have cut out there because I missed…

Toby (17:28):
Gosh, why were the apple and orange all alone?

Chris (17:32):
Because the banana split.

Toby (17:33):
Right. It was like crickets there. It was crickets. I’m sorry.

Cheyenne (17:39):
Toby, you’ve just been waiting with bated breath [inaudible 00:17:42].

Toby (17:41):
I know, I was waiting for the right time for that. Well, I think in our last couple of conversations with Chris, I was throwing out ridiculous fruit puns too.

Cheyenne (17:49):
There’s a lot of really good ones that can be incorporated.

Toby (17:51):
My apologies. All right, I’ll get us back on track. So let’s talk flavor innovation.

Chris (17:58):
Okay.

Toby (17:58):
I think we talked a little bit last time you were on, just, we talked about some pretty wild fruits that y’all have worked with. What are you seeing are kind of the most popular fruits and purees right now?

Chris (18:12):
Well, so here’s where we get into the really crazy part of this conversation because when you use the word flavors, I was thinking about that most recent Brewbound article that talked about how flavor is king now. So I want to make sure that when we, us beer folk, talk about flavor, we’re talking about anything that’s not a traditionally hops, barley and yeast and hops and that’s it. I’m talking about anything beyond that. So when we think about these flavors, caneberries still reign supreme. Raspberry’s our number one selling fruit by far. However, the last three years we’ve seen a huge uptick in citrus. So tangerine, cara cara, blood orange, ruby red grapefruit. Two reasons I think those are popular. A, they’re being able to use crosspollination into RTDs, hard seltzers, even some ciders. But also, quite frankly, they’re a little bit less expensive.

(19:10)
So you got citrus, you got caneberry, tropical is still running a hot second no matter what you’re making;, mango, pineapple, passion fruit, [inaudible 00:19:21] guava, all top contenders for the top fifth spot for what’s hot and what’s not. We still lean into the food industry quite a bit to find out what’s happening in Asia, what’s happening in the food scene in the US. We find a lot of linkage between the two. So I don’t think there’s any specific answer other than the fact that people want more of more, meaning that they’re trying to stretch the boundaries of what they’ve tried before and sometimes still going back to the tried-and-true performers that just never go out of style.

Toby (19:55):
And what’s also cool too is y’all release seasonal offerings too, right?

Chris (19:59):
Yes.

Toby (19:59):
Limited seasonal. And some of those have been extremely popular and just fly off the shelves. What were a few of those that you can remember that were pretty popular?

Chris (20:09):
Funny thing, so everything I just mentioned, with the exception of caneberries, we had 14 SKUs when I started in 2016. We have 24 SKUs now. Every single one of those additional SKUs was started out as a seasonal, so the entire citrus portfolio were seasonals at one time. All five of our tropicals were seasonals at one time. And then to your point, we’ve added a few stone fruits that are now year-rounders, but as with every SKU manager can ever tell you, it’s like, some is good, too many is not good. And so we try to keep our portfolio clean, we try to offer things that are new; dragon fruit, prickly pear, watermelon, you guys have all played with all those. We’re going to continue to push the envelope next year. Your team is actually going to be down to talk to our marketing team to see if we can come out with sort of a set list of seasonals next year that should lock in three to four seasonals that people can count on. And then on top of that, we’ll add another two or three super specialty limited releases next year.

Toby (21:14):
Oh, that’s awesome. Going back to SKU manager, y’all have an in-house team that is strictly trying out new fruits? And how do they do that? Do they have a panel or are you on a panel? Or how do y’all go through trying to figure out something’s going to work in the beverage industry?

Chris (21:33):
We include two or three folks from our QA team who all have extremely good pallets. We have a couple folks from our R&D team who are constantly sourcing fruit for not just our fermentation channel, but our food service channel, they’re on the team. I’m on the team, our sales manager in brewing is on the team, our brand manager’s on the team. He comes from the coffee world, and he’s got an exceptional palette. So we’ve got about five to eight people depending upon the week. In terms of actually choosing what we decide on, like for example, we had three or four fruits come in last week and we said no to all four of them. I mean, for whether they couldn’t be processed properly or they just didn’t cut the mustard for unique varieties that could be used in brewing. Yeah, so we’re constantly on the hunt. I will say this, the first five years that I was the primary dude choosing stuff, I would lean into what our customers wanted.

Toby (22:29):
Yeah, absolutely.

Chris (22:30):
We’re still taking those ideas from brewing customers. I was back on the East Coast last week for the Pink Boots Society meeting and I was talking to customers about what they’d like to see in 2025. And so some of those ideas will make the short list of what we might bring in.

Toby (22:47):
Is some of that request just regionally based too, right? For instance, down in Texas, prickly pear is a big one. I guess, my question is, when you’re traveling around and talking to different customers, are they looking for something specific to more driven towards their local area?

Chris (23:09):
It’s 50/50. Canada was infamous for throwing some cool ideas to us that were indigenous fruits that you could only find in Canada. So we did sample a couple of those. I think what I’ve learned from our brewing customers, they travel and they experiment. So a lot of their requests come from experiences they’ve had either culturally through pleasure travel or work travel, but they’re not necessarily looking for fruit that’s unique to their region. It’s pretty much fruit that they’ve just had an amazing experience with. So experiential feelings play heavily into these requests and suggestions we get from customers.

Toby (23:52):
That makes a lot of sense. Well, we talked earlier, and you’ve mentioned, and we know it here, but just, what sets Oregon Fruit apart is quality, quality, quality, consistency. And I think the other thing too, and people that know you and your team is you’re always a phone call away, including the folks from Country Malt Group that sell your products. But right now, and we know in this market and where we are now, beer over the tap continues to grow. People still, we talk about experience, you mentioned it a second ago, but people still like to go to the tap room, hang out and try a variety of beers. What does Oregon Fruit offer that can help drive some more of that taproom sales? Or some of your suggestions as far as using fruit to serve on a taproom basis?

Chris (24:46):
Perfectly timed question. So I’m going to read something from a customer of ours, a very large East Coast customer who has been a customer of ours for many years. And funny thing is, they used to be of customer of ours when I was in distribution back in the 90s. “Hey Chris, the shandy turned out great. We did a draft-only program. The three versions of this shandy we made are the best-selling taps in our taproom.” That, to me, summarizes virtually every conversation I have with a brewmaster, an owner, a procurement person who their taproom is the breeding ground for what that next great thing will be.

(25:30)
And as an old beer guy, you can appreciate this, Toby, we used to build brands in the on-premise, where a lot of times those beers were only available on-premise. Everybody I’ve talked to in the last two years since COVID, their taproom has now jumped up in priority to their number one or two main areas of focus for their overall business success. So what does Oregon Fruit offer? We just continue to offer insights, feedback, and primarily all the education that we get from the thousands of customers that we hear from on a monthly basis. So it’s kind of just taking the best of the best and allowing… And we never share names, we always share ideas, of folks who are just seeing success and what’s helping them drive more traffic through their taproom.

Toby (26:18):
That is awesome. That’s a good testimonial from that customer. And maybe offline, I’ll hit you up and head out there myself.

Chris (26:26):
Yeah, for sure.

Toby (26:29):
So we talked a little bit about some of the trends and usage of fruit in beers and other beverages, but beyond beer, so RTD, seltzers, ciders, I know those have picked up steam within the last three, four years. What are you seeing in that market with regards to fruit?

Chris (26:49):
I think unlimited boundary of what the future holds for the beverage category as a whole. I think that we, as a fruit processor and a fruit-for-beverage expert, are happy about the innovation. We’re also cautious. We’re also seeing a lot of these types of products that they’re not necessarily always using the highest quality ingredients. Sometimes they’re using essences or flavorings. That’s not our prerogative. What we are seeing is also that the consumers are demanding to understand what the ingredient label says. And so we’re seeing this split camp. Our camp would like to kind of straddle both, and whenever we’re possible, we try to allow folks to say, “Hey, you have a choice. You advertise real fruit. You can still have an amazing product. When used properly, your cost model will still stay within your specs and hopefully end up with a product that your team and the consumers will be driven to because you’re using real fruit.” So RTDs, hard seltzers, CBD, THC, you name it, flavored water, hot water, everything you see on the shelf in some fashion or form is going to have a flavor in it.

Toby (28:11):
Yeah, that’s awesome. Really, really good.

Chris (28:14):
Toby, you know what? I’m still a good old-fashioned IPA pilsner kind of guy. I’m so happy to see rice lagers and well-made Czech Pils and Bohemian Pils, and I’m happy to see that the craft brewers are pushing their focus on quality to the highest level I’ve ever seen it. I’ve had some of the best beers I’ve had in the last two decades, just in the last two years, because quality has become a top priority for brewers no matter what they’re making.

Toby (28:43):
A hundred percent agree. And I think that over the last year and a half, two years, I would agree that quality, consistency is the focus where we are in market, and I absolutely agree with it. The beer is getting better and better and I think that the brewers are really concentrating and buckling down on what they need to do and what they need to focus on. So, good stuff. And obviously, Oregon Fruit’s the way to go if you’re using your fruit in any of your beverages, for sure.

Chris (29:10):
Great.

Toby (29:11):
You mentioned you’re not going to name names, but some of the big players using fruit in fermentation, obviously the testimonial you gave about the shandies, but any other kind of snippets you can give us of some other big users of fruit in the market?

Chris (29:33):
So the good news is, because of my past history, I managed some of the largest beer portfolios that came down the pike in the last 20 plus years. And so I saw have a lot of friends who are either working for large regional breweries now or have jumped back to smaller breweries. Some of the larger regional breweries, they have more money, they have more funding, they have more R&D, FTEs to work against these new innovation projects. I don’t know that there’s a single brewery that we have heard from that some of the largest breweries in the world to some of the smallest breweries who aren’t pushing innovation.

(30:09)
And what we have found is, by working with them, much like your team does, to consult with them allows them to have the time, the patience, and a lot of these projects never go anywhere. They end up still somewhere on the lab floor, and that’s fine. But I guess, there’s not a single brewer that we have worked with that hasn’t done something either on a very large worldwide scale or at least regional scale with fruit. So I guess, since I won’t share names, let’s put it this way, if I were to visit any brewery within your neck of the woods, I’m pretty sure all of them would have done something with Oregon Fruit at some point.

Toby (30:56):
I would agree with you. Yep, we see a lot of it out in market because it is absolutely a quality product for sure.

Chris (31:05):
Yeah, times have changed. But I guess, from my standpoint, and your team probably sees and hears it too, is I think becoming a true partner in innovation is paramount to anything else, and it takes time. What a lot of folks don’t understand, and it’s one thing to be in sales, but it’s another thing to understand that we just love our business, that relationships mean everything, almost more than ever.

Toby (31:34):
Oh, yeah.

Chris (31:34):
Cost of good is important, but when you’ve got a relationship that you can literally, it’s a phone call away, and if there’s a problem or if there’s an issue that you know is going to be solved, that never goes out of style.

Toby (31:45):
I agree. And I think both Oregon Fruit and Country Malt Group are on the same page there and that’s why we’re partners in making sure we can get this great product out to our consumers.

Chris (31:56):
Absolutely.

Toby (31:56):
Well, I do have a question for Cheyenne and then for Chris. If you were to transform into any fruit, what would it be and why? Cheyenne.

Cheyenne (32:11):
Easy answer to that question. Watermelon, because I absolutely love watermelon. My favorite fruit of all time, hands-down. And it is such a, speaking of seasonal, it is like the indication that summer is here. When you get a good watermelon and it’s super sweet and juicy, that’s like, okay, summer is in full effect time to go hang at the beach and eat some watermelon. So that’s my answer.

Toby (32:33):
That’s a great one. Follow up question to that is, seeds or seedless?

Cheyenne (32:40):
Seedless are easier to eat, but I find that the seeded watermelons usually are a little bit sweeter. So if you want the sweeter one, you got to kind of navigate around the seeds, but that’s okay.

Toby (32:50):
I got a buddy down here in Texas that will not eat seedless watermelons because he thinks it’s just like a travesty. It’s just something not right about it. Chris, have y’all done anything with watermelon?

Chris (33:03):
Yeah, we had a hugely successful seasonal release earlier this year. I’m sorry, later last year. It was so popular that we bought, I think, three truckloads. It was vaporized, so we brought another truckload in, and then, here’s the funny thing is, I agree with Cheyenne, if I were to think summer, I would think watermelon automatically. Sometimes it doesn’t translate into the best juice, because it’s water basically. But whatever we found, it was a Brazilian version, and it literally tasted like watermelon. So it was a super hit. We’re sold out now, prickly pears aren’t really seasonal, but yeah, we’re definitely bringing watermelon back, and we’re probably going to double our seasonal run with it next year.

Cheyenne (33:45):
That’ll be super popular, because I can say from experience that all of my customers just buy-up the watermelon like crazy.

Chris (33:52):
Yeah, I’m sure.

Toby (33:53):
Yeah, I’m sure Cheyenne will order some puree or some for herself, just keep it in the refrigerator.

Cheyenne (33:57):
Yeah, exactly.

Toby (33:58):
Yeah. I don’t know, I’ve always had a hard time judging a good watermelon at the store.

Cheyenne (34:04):
Oh, me too. It’s a total [inaudible 00:34:05].

Toby (34:06):
Yeah. I don’t know, Chris, you got any pointers for us on that? I’ve heard all kinds of things.

Chris (34:10):
Density. Toby, density.

Toby (34:13):
You flick it?

Chris (34:14):
Heavy, so it has to be heavy. It should thump. But also, you want to look for something where, at least from what I’ve heard, I’m not a total fruit expert, but if you’re looking for a watermelon that has a big old yellow spot, I mean sometimes kind of the gnarlier looking watermelons actually will have a sweeter flavor profile.

Cheyenne (34:35):
That’s what I’ve heard too. I’ve heard the same thing. If they have a big yellow spot that’s really, really yellow, I heard it means that they were able to ripe it on the vine longer. I don’t know if that’s true, but-

Chris (34:45):
That’s true.

Cheyenne (34:45):
Is it? Okay, cool.

Chris (34:50):
You’re exactly right, yes. Cheyenne, I don’t know where you’re located, but Hermiston, Oregon supposedly has some of the best watermelon in the world, but there’s never-

Cheyenne (34:57):
A hundred percent the best watermelon. I live in Washington, and my partner and I, we’ll look for the Hermiston, Oregon watermelon.

Chris (35:04):
Yeah.

Toby (35:05):
All right. Well Chris, it’s your turn. Fruit? If you could turn into one.

Chris (35:11):
Can I do two?

Toby (35:12):
Yes.

Chris (35:13):
Because they kind of mirror each other. And I’m going to say this because fruit has to be perfectly ripe for it to be perfect. A perfectly ripe peach that has just, it’s so succulent that you have to eat it over a sink, is in my top two. And for some crazy reason, I just love a perfectly ripe mango.

Toby (35:36):
Oh, me too.

Cheyenne (35:37):
Those are both great answers.

Toby (35:38):
Yeah, really good.

Cheyenne (35:39):
Both of those [inaudible 00:35:40].

Chris (35:40):
But again, they can go sideways so quick.

Toby (35:44):
Those are great ones. Great ones. Well, cool. I think mine would be the grape. A grape. I like grapes. I just think you could do so many different things. So many different applications with grape. And I like wine too, but-

Chris (35:57):
Oh, there you go. There you go.

Toby (35:59):
Grapes are good. Have y’all had the Cotton Candy grapes? There’s this new-

Chris (36:03):
Oh my God, my daughter fell in love with those a few years ago. I was like, “What the hell is this?” I ate a cold one one time. I was like, “Oh my god, they’re amazing.”

Toby (36:13):
Yeah. My nephew brought them out a couple of months ago and I was like, “Oh, this is a gimmick.” No, they’re really good. I don’t know if they taste like cotton candy, but they’re a little more sweet.

Chris (36:23):
Yeah.

Toby (36:25):
Well, very good, Chris, thanks for coming on to the HodgeCast again.

Chris (36:28):
Always a pleasure.

Toby (36:30):
We really appreciate your time and your expertise. It’s always great having you on and we look forward to seeing you again and again. For those of the listeners out there looking to really take advantage of some quality fruit, Oregon Fruit is the place to look into. And we have those and sell that product at Country Malt Group. So Chris, thanks again for your time. We really appreciate it.

Chris (36:55):
All right, take care.

Toby (36:56):
Bye, Chris. Thanks.

Heather (36:57):
We are now very lucky to be joined by one of our industry friends and an expert in the fruit world, particularly fruit concentrates. Welcome, Tyson. How’s it going?

Tyson (37:07):
Hey, great. Great to be with you guys. Yeah, happy to talk a little bit about fruit with you guys, fruit beers.

Heather (37:14):
Fruit beers, ’tis the season.

Cheyenne (37:18):
I love the title of Expert in the Fruit World. That’s just so all-encompassing. It’s amazing.

Heather (37:26):
Need the [inaudible 00:37:27].

Toby (37:27):
I need a title like that, right?

Heather (37:28):
Yeah. We’re going to have to go through and change all of our titles after this. Before we jump into all of the questions that we have for you, can you give us a little brief introduction to yourself, how you have become an expert in the fruit world?

Tyson (37:44):
Yeah. I started about 15 years ago in the fruit juice and puree / concentrate world. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from a lot of very, very smart people. We’ve got a lot of very smart people around us, and you just pick up on a lot of that stuff from the scientists that are in QA and R&D, to the sales and marketing guys that have been around before me, to really everything. We’ve gotten the ability and the opportunity to work with folks like yourself working in a very fun category, which is beer and distilled spirits and hard cider, and that sort of deal, all the way through things like ice creams and pie fillings. And obviously the easiest one is just kind of fruit juices in general and that sort of deal, but it’s amazing how much of the world and how much of our food that fruit juice and puree touches. So it’s a really exciting industry.

Toby (38:58):
All right, Tyson, I got a question for you because we’re talking about intro, guest background, et cetera. If you were to walk into a room full of people, the light shines your way, doorway opens, what song would it be that you walk into?

Tyson (39:13):
Oh my gosh. I actually grew up playing music. I’ve got a lot of friends in the industry and all that sort of deal, so some Texas western swing, it’d probably be my jam that I’d be in.

Cheyenne (39:29):
That’s amazing.

Toby (39:29):
I wasn’t expecting you to answer that question because it wasn’t in the lineup. I just am that guy that just throws some dumb questions there. But I like that, especially when you said Texas.

Cheyenne (39:40):
Its like the baseball walkup song. You can learn a lot from one based on what their baseball walkup song would be.

Toby (39:43):
I like it.

Tyson (39:44):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Cheyenne (39:48):
That’s amazing. Well, thanks Toby for that one.

Toby (39:51):
Hey, that’s what I’m here for.

Cheyenne (39:54):
Tyson, we’ve got a lot of questions for you for all things with fruit concentrate. Oh, we’re bringing you on specifically because we are bringing on some new fruit concentrates coming soon. We’ve got pineapple and cherry. Can you tell us a little bit about those?

Tyson (40:09):
Yeah, absolutely. So pineapple and cherry, dark sweet cherry, specifically, that nice… Think those being those rainier type cherries and that sort of deal. A nice sweet summertime, red fruit. And then pineapple, just a really cool item that goes well in summertime beers and that sort of thing. Both products would be a clarified juice concentrate product. The benefit there is having a nice, very consistent product that can be used in a variety of different applications. Certainly you still see a little bit of seasonal changes and that sort of deal when you talk about anything with fruit, but trying to figure out how to make it as consistent as possible is really the name of the game. And I think the pineapple and cherry that you guys have come up with really hit that on the head, and really make a unique product that’s available to hit that wide variety of different spots going into beers and ciders and seltzers and mocktails and all sorts of fun stuff like that.

Cheyenne (41:29):
I’m born and raised in Washington, so you’re singing my song with the cherry flavoring there. I’m very excited for that one. We love our cherries here in Washington.

Toby (41:37):
Cheyenne?

Cheyenne (41:39):
Yeah.

Toby (41:39):
Question. What’s the easiest way that you get the seeds out of the cherry before you eat them? I got my technique here, but I’m just curious.

Cheyenne (41:47):
You just chomp down on the whole thing and then spit it out.

Toby (41:49):
Spit the seed out, yeah?

Cheyenne (41:50):
Yeah.

Toby (41:52):
Well, we use a straw sometimes. You just shove a straw in there and it just punches out-

Abi (41:55):
That sounds like a lot of work.

Toby (41:56):
It is.

Cheyenne (42:01):
I thought you were going to ask me a question about cherry blowing. I thought we were going down that route.

Toby (42:04):
No.

Heather (42:04):
Oh, my God. I forgot about cherry blowing.

Toby (42:08):
Gosh, I can’t join these anymore. Just, ow. Well, no, Tyson, what about you? I mean, first of all, I mean pineapples and cherries are hard to carve out if you’re not professional at them, but what’s your go-to when you’re eating cherries?

Tyson (42:22):
I think just the standards going with the Rainiers or something like that is the way to go. Just a nice great juicy… Cherry’s a great, great flavor, especially if you get some of those chocolate-covered ones.

Toby (42:42):
There you go.

Cheyenne (42:43):
Yeah. Now we’re talking.

Abi (42:46):
What are they called, Cheyenne? Are they Chukar Cherries? Is that what it is out there?

Cheyenne (42:50):
We have Rainier cherries [inaudible 00:42:53].

Tyson (42:54):
Yeah, Chukar Cherries is here in [inaudible 00:42:55] as well. Yeah, absolutely.

Abi (42:56):
Yeah, I got some of those when I was out there, they’re really good.

Cheyenne (42:59):
Oh, that’s cool. I feel like we could get down the rabbit hole of the different types of cherry species.

Abi (43:06):
Yes, we could.

Cheyenne (43:06):
Let’s get us back on track. Well, can you start by telling us, you talked a little bit about fruit concentrate. Can you tell us what exactly a fruit concentrate is and how the concentrates are made?

Tyson (43:17):
Absolutely. So really not from concentrate and concentrated products. And if you step back and you think about it and go through and look on the grocery store shelf, there’s a lot of orange juice that’ll say, “Not from concentrate,” and that sort of deal. So basically, what you’re doing is you’re crushing an orange as an example or a cherry or whatever, and once you crush that, the liquid that’s coming out is going to be not from concentrate. It’s going to be just straight juice out of that fruit.

(43:53)
Now, if you take a concentrated product, what we’re going to do, and I’m going to do this in a very simple way to start with, but essentially, what we’re doing is we’re removing water out of that fruit. And the benefits there that we’re seeing is, you’re making a more consistent product. You’re being a little more efficient as far as being able to ship that product or use that product because you’re not necessarily just relying on Mother Nature to give you that perfect cherry at 20 bricks every time. Sometimes it might come in and it’s at 17 or sometimes it might come in and it’s 22. Well, if you’re looking at a concentrated product, and this product in particular at 36 brick, we’re going through and every time we make it, it’s going to be at 36 brick. You can consistently rely on it, you can make a formula and you can have consistency in that end product. And that is a benefit that a concentrated product does over an NFC-type product day-in and day-out. Its consistency, is the name of the game there.

Cheyenne (45:01):
One of the main differences, as I understand it as well, is with a concentrate, you’re removing the fruit solids that might be a part of the product once you squish down a cherry or an orange or whatever it is, you’re removing those solids. So it’s not something that the brewer or the distiller will have to contend with. Is that true?

Tyson (45:20):
Correct. So when we’re thinking about fruit, there are insoluble solids in there. There’s obviously skins, sometimes there’s seeds and that sort of deal. So this kind of brings us into a juice versus puree type of scenario as well. So if you think of taking a bunch of cherries and some pineapples and throwing them in your blender at home and going through, you’re going to have a pureed smoothie. Now that’s going to have some fibrous material in there. It might have a little bit of seeds in there and that sort of thing. Well, we’re going to take some of those insoluble solids and some of those seeds, and we’re going to separate those a little bit further when we do it on an industrial scale. So that pureed product, think a smoothie type product that you’re pushing through your blender and that sort of thing, you’re going to have some of those solids in there. When you’re looking at a juice product, sometimes it can be a little bit cloudy. Most of the time it’s actually going to go all the way to what we would call a clarified juice concentrate.

(46:21)
So we’re going to put it through a filter process that’s going to take more of those solids out and it’s going to filter it so you’re going to get a clear product that you’d be able to see through if you picked it up. So on the brewing side, if you’re using a pureed product, most of the time those solids end up coming out at some point anyway. It just happens on the brewer side. So you’re going through and you’re cleaning out tanks and that sort of deal. Well, the beauty of using a juice concentrate in a brewing application is we’re taking that system to where we’re taking all those solids and we’re removing those on our side before they even get there. So it’s actually, in a way, making it more efficient for the brewer or more efficient for whomever’s using it, going in to what their end product is.

Cheyenne (47:11):
Well, Tyson, can you tell us a little bit about… Concentrate is aseptic? Is that true and can you tell us what that means?

Tyson (47:20):
Yeah, so everything that’s going to go through when you’re making it, so the FDA is going to make sure that you go through what’s called a 5-log kill. And I know when you start getting into sciencey nerds and that sort of thing, looking at sanitation obviously is a huge, huge focus, especially when you’re getting into brewing and that sort of thing. On our side, cleanliness of product is very important as well. So we’re going to go through a 5-log heat step and what that’s going to do is that’s going to be a pasteurization step. So we really focus on two different styles of packaging in the fruit world. So it would be a pasteurized frozen product or it would be aseptic product. So this product that we’re talking about is an aseptic product which gives the ability of shelf stability. So what you see in aseptic versus just in normal pasteurization is you do see a little bit hotter temperature, but you see it there for a shorter amount of time.

(48:31)
Then you’re cooling that product off. So once you’re putting it in an aseptic package, you’re coming in at roughly room temperature. Room temperature here in the middle of Washington, in the summertime, you’re probably in the 70s, maybe in the 80s, and then we’re going to store that product cool. We’re going to store it chilled because we want to make sure that we’re seeing the best quality product for the longest amount of time. But that benefit of that aseptic package is that you can use shelf-stable or ambient storage to be able to go through and do that. I think that’s huge in the brewing industry because you can have stuff, if you have limited cooler space or limited storage space and that sort of deal, you can get these products and you can have the confidence that it’s not going to start fermenting or it’s not going to go through and you’re not going to have any bad bugs or bacteria or anything in there before you put it in there.

(49:30)
Now, if some people are doing like a sour beer and they’re adding their own bacteria in there, or if they’re putting it in and they want to ferment that fruit with their beer or anything like that, that’s fantastic. That gives the brewer the ability to add in exactly what they want for their style of finished beverage, but we want to provide a very clean product to start with and let the brewers or let the brew masters do what they want with it.

Toby (50:00):
Yeah, Tyson, I think the rest of the folks on the call here, I’ve been into some breweries where the footprint is unbelievably tight. They’ve done everything they can to stuff tanks in there, and they use every bit of space that they have. So not only they’re probably storing kegs that they’re serving out of in their taproom and in hops and whatnot it makes a lot of sense if you can utilize an aseptic product and have it on the shelf in ambient temperature, I think it makes a lot of sense.

Tyson (50:29):
Yeah, it absolutely does.

Abi (50:31):
So what is the shelf-life of the concentrates?

Tyson (50:35):
You’re going to get 36 months out of it? So the way that our QA folks, our technical folks, like to say is, we’re going to get 36 months of being microbiologically stable. So what does that mean and why do I bring it up that way? The one thing that we cannot control is color loss. So fruit products will naturally brown over time. So when you’re looking at a product, an aseptic product, the warmer you store it, the more it will accelerate that natural browning process of fruit. So think about when you take an apple and you cut a slice off the apple and you let it sit on your counter, it’s nice and white and looks like a great apple and whatnot. You let it sit on your counter for an hour and then it starts browning and doing this [inaudible 00:51:30] browning process to it.

(51:32)
Well, that’ll happen even with the juice concentrate. It’s a much slower rate and everything, but that’s the one thing that I would encourage brewers to take a look at, because a lot of times color is important. A lot of times color is not important, because they’re going through and they want to have that in their product, and it doesn’t matter exactly how bright the color is or where it is, but 36 months microbiological [inaudible 00:51:59] staple, is what you can expect from all these aseptic products.

Toby (52:04):
Yeah, I would think on that cherry, probably something brewers are probably looking at a little bit more is retaining that deep red color in a finished product as opposed to the pineapple, right?

Tyson (52:18):
I think again, it depends on what that product is that they’re making. I’ve been out and I’ve been able to try some beers and whatnot that they want to have that red color in there and they want that to come through. And there’s some that they just want that flavor to come through and pop and still want that kind of beer color. You still want to know that you’re drinking a beer out there at the end of the day too.

Toby (52:44):
Yeah, absolutely.

Abi (52:45):
I think that’s the thing that I really like about this product though, Tyson, is that you do have that really pretty color. And I have seen, in some of the samples that I have, from a while ago, is that that color does tend to dull a little bit, but I think no matter what, you do get that quality flavor along with the color. And that’s the thing that I love the most about this.

Tyson (53:09):
Yeah, and that deep red is just a nice spot to be in. And certainly there’s things that are more color-stable than others. But I think you guys hit it on the head using a pineapple and a cherry as a starting point to go through and take a look at these new product lines.

Toby (53:31):
Speaking of usage, and maybe Abi, this is maybe a question for you or even Cheyenne being brewers by trade. So what if I were to say, “Hey, here’s some pineapple, here’s some cherry,” just off the top of your head, what would you brew with? And then how would you go about using it in the process?

Tyson (53:54):
We get that question a lot. It’s certainly an important one and it’s a hard one to answer. We do have a recommended dosage rate, I guess I should say, starting point. And typically what we do is 5% by weight or by volume, whichever your measuring way is, and I know that’s going to change just a little bit, but we start at that 5% because most of the time, brewers are artists and brewers come up with some really great stuff. And so when an artist has an idea of what they want their beer to be or their seltzer to be or their cider to be, they’ve got an idea of flavor profile and taste profile in that as well. So what we like to do is suggest that on the bench top, you add with that 5% addition and go through and then go up or down until it really hits that flavor profile and that point where you want to be at and where it makes that product that brewer is proud of.

Abi (55:02):
And something that I think when I was looking at bringing this into our portfolio, it’s not just beer that you can add it into. You can add it into so many different things with the clarification of using a concentrate. One conversation I remember having with Tyson when I was out there in Washington trying these products out was that, with these, our brewers have the freedom of being as creative as they want to with it. We have the potential to make different bases at some point where we can add a fruit with another fruit. We are thinking about doing something like a mojito flavoring, but the conversation that we had was that brewers can really add whatever they want and they can make that flavor profile whatever they want it to be. And I think that that just adds a new element of figuring out your recipe to be exactly how you want it to be.

(56:03)
And I think, like I said, you don’t have to add this just to beer, you can create this with a seltzer, you can add it to an RTD. We have a lot of focus on beyond beer moving forward as well, as concentrating on our brewers as well. But I mean, there’s a lot of possibilities for this product. It’s really cool.

Tyson (56:28):
Yeah, it’s a great product to go through. And the other point there is, it’s a clean ingredient as well. It’s a hundred percent fruit, there’s no other additives into this product. So going in, you know that you’re a hundred percent fruit going into whatever beverage that is. So what you’re adding in is only exactly what you’re intending to add in. So I think that’s a really huge benefit to call out on this as well.

Toby (56:55):
Yeah, I agree. And we’ve talked about it in prep meetings for this particular podcast episode, but we’ve seen some trends kind of bouncing forth as far as fruited beers, fruit usage in beers and other products as well. But what are you seeing right now as far as some of the trends or what the future holds for fruit and beers and other beverages?

Tyson (57:26):
Well, I think one of the things that I typically see, and I certainly enjoy going and visiting new breweries when we’re out traveling or we’re out on vacation and that sort of deal. And I think one of the things that I look for when I go in into those places is exactly what the brewers probably want as well, or I hope it’s what they want as well. Go in and what makes them unique? What makes you come in and what makes you find something on a tap handle that you go, “You know what? When I get back home, I’m going to look for some of that and I want to buy some of that, and I want to share that with my friends, my family, when I get back home.”? I think being able to be unique in that space is one of the benefits that we’ve seen.

(58:13)
And to Abi’s point, going into cider, going into seltzer, going into beer, and in the beer world, I mean, oh my gosh, you’ve got lagers and you’ve got IPAs and you’ve got sour beers, and you’ve got all these different things. And I think having an ingredient like this just opens up the world so much more for you to be creative and try to come up with something that is going to stick out in somebody’s mind when they come in and they look at your brand and they say, “Hey, you know what? This was really good. I want to try something else from these guys as well.”

Toby (58:51):
I appreciate that response too. What is the wildest fruit you’ve worked with? I think we’ve had conversations on other episodes when we’re talking about fruit, about just some of the craziness or unique fruits that people have used or experimented with. Just more of a round table question, but we’ll start with you, Tyson.

Tyson (59:11):
Yeah. I think some of the stuff that we’re going to focus on most of the time is going to be North American-grown fruits. Now with that being said, some people look at North American-grown fruits and it’s, “Oh, I have to have something that’s tropical,” or, “I have to have something that’s from Thailand,” or from wherever. We really focus on a lot of North American fruits. Now, that’s not to say that we haven’t had our experiences with some of these other things. You get into dragon fruits and yuzu and a bunch of different things.

(59:50)
But the interesting part of that, as exotic as you get, or the more you go out and you look at stuff, you typically always tend to come back to, for one reason or another, maybe it’s price point, maybe it’s availability or whatever, you come back to those blueberries and those watermelons and those cherries and some different things like that. And I think that we’ve got a real unique spot being here in North America and what’s grown here to take a look at. One of the other unique things is, we kind of mentioned on blending and putting different fruits together, doing a pineapple cherry lemonade as an example or something like that, that really gets you into the weeds and can create some really unique products as well.

Toby (01:00:39):
Yeah, I was just thinking about, I used to love the cherry Limeade from Sonic. Everybody have Sonics?

Tyson (01:00:55):
Up north, yeah.

Heather (01:00:55):
We don’t have Sonic here in Canada. That’s not a thing. But every time I used to go down like Spokane or anything, I used to always go to Sonic and get the Cherry, Cherry Limeade. Cherry, Cherry Limeade, so good.

Toby (01:00:58):
Yeah, and it sounds like that would be a really cool product that somebody could try to replicate either in the RTD or seltzer side with this cherry.

Tyson (01:01:08):
Oh my gosh, yeah, that’s a great flavor profile.

Heather (01:01:12):
So we’re just throwing that out there now. We need a customer to make us a cherry lime beer.

Toby (01:01:16):
We have two seasoned brewers on the line here. They should be producing them.

Abi (01:01:24):
I love the idea of doing nostalgic flavors. I had, the other night, I had an Ecto Cooler drink.

Cheyenne (01:01:35):
Oh my God.

Abi (01:01:35):
Yeah. And it was just so, I don’t know, so nostalgic. And I think creating flavors like that would be really fun.

Cheyenne (01:01:42):
That sounds amazing.

Toby (01:01:43):
Hundred percent. [inaudible 01:01:47]. Yeah. We went to a snow cone stand, I don’t know, like two, three months ago. Is that concentrated fruit? The stuff you put over the shaved ice?

Abi (01:02:00):
I think that’s a sugar.

Toby (01:02:01):
Yeah, sounds like it.

Tyson (01:02:02):
Sometimes it can, but most of the time it’s more of a syrup that’s made. And sometimes, to get that syrupy thing, sometimes there can be added ingredients. There can be some added sugar in there and that sort of deal for not only that stability of it, but that kind of syrupy-ness of it and that sort of thing. Sometimes there’s added flavors in there to be able to make things pop. And all that, at the end of the day, is usage. How can you pour that on that snow cone and whatnot and not make it so that you have to put a ton in there? And then you let the water and the ice do the rest to be able to go through. But those sweetnesses, sometimes that is added sugar flavors, things like that.

Cheyenne (01:02:48):
I’m going to be using my sample requesting powers to just order myself some cherry and pineapple samples. [inaudible 01:02:57]. Snow cones at home, I think.

Heather (01:02:58):
And a shaved ice machine.

Cheyenne (01:03:00):
Exactly.

Heather (01:03:03):
I would love to just quickly circle back to, I know we talked dosage, but when should the brewer be adding these products in? Post-ferment, pre-ferment?

Tyson (01:03:15):
So either way. However, if you’re post-fermentation, the one thing is fruit products contain natural sugars. So if you’re adding in post-fermentation, it’s really important to make sure that you have the ability to control that potential secondary fermentation, because nobody wants to be shipping out cans or bottles somewhere, and then all of a sudden you’ve got a bottle popping on the shelf somewhere or whatnot. So having some sort of pasteurization step on your bottling or canning line is really important when you’re working with fruit. Just making sure there’s no possibility for that. But I have worked with a bunch of different brewers that have done pre-fermentation and post-fermentation and had some very, very good success.

Toby (01:04:11):
Hey, Abi, curious, I’m really glad that we’re bringing in and going to have these two products available, but I know you mentioned maybe some unique blending and some other cool flavors going forward. Anything on the horizon or any additional products that we have in the portfolio that folks might want to look at?

Abi (01:04:33):
Yeah, we have a few ideas that we were going to mention to Tyson and his team moving forward as our next launch. But one of the things that I was really excited about when I was there, like I said, were the bases that we could potentially bring in. Tyson was just so awesome in saying that the world is our oyster and we can kind of just decide something that we’d like to do and his team would try to make it work. And I love that idea of innovating something that would be really nice to add just to a simple seltzer or an RTD mocktail cocktail, even just like a THC water or CBD water. So beyond the lookout, we’ll be adding more to our portfolio for sure.

Toby (01:05:18):
Good stuff. Well, hey, I really appreciate you coming on Tyson, and appreciate what you’ve done for us and the info that you’ve provided, and look forward to seeing you on the next soiree while we’re out and about and look forward to seeing what kind of products we come up with and lineup. But if you’re looking for some pineapple and cherry, keep your eyes open. Give us a shout or your local rep, but CMG will certainly take care of you.

Tyson (01:05:41):
Great. Thank you, guys.

Toby (01:05:43):
Well, that was a good one, Cheyenne. I quite enjoyed-

Cheyenne (01:05:46):
That was a great one, yeah. I love a good fruit episode. Any sort of beer additions, those are always fun.

Toby (01:05:51):
Yeah, for sure. I need to eat more fruit and vegetables, I think.

Cheyenne (01:05:57):
Always a good [inaudible 01:05:58] goal.

Toby (01:06:00):
Yeah, it sure is. Well, usually my goal is just to stand upright in the morning.

Cheyenne (01:06:05):
And you’re doing that, so you’re exceeding your goals.

Toby (01:06:09):
That I am. Well, we want to thank you berry much.

Cheyenne (01:06:14):
Thank you berry much.

Toby (01:06:15):
Yes. Chris Hodge, Chris HodgeCast as we call him. Thanks for coming on for multiple occasions. And then Tyson Jones, appreciate you coming on.

Cheyenne (01:06:26):
Great guests for a great episode. And orange you glad you didn’t miss this episode?

Toby (01:06:31):
Oh my gosh.

Cheyenne (01:06:32):
Last one. Last one, we made it through.

Toby (01:06:35):
Did you just come up with that? I think you did.

Cheyenne (01:06:38):
You know what? I got to give credit to our podcast editor, Haley. She never wants the credit, but she deserves all the credit. She came up with a lot of really good fruit puns for us.

Toby (01:06:46):
There you go. Well, send up your carrier pigeons to subscribe to the BrewDeck Podcast or whatever you do to do it, just do it. We’ll be back in a few weeks to launch our new episode. Bye, Cheyenne.

Cheyenne (01:07:00):
See you, Toby.

Toby (01:07:01):
Bye.